The US markets closed mostly lower on Thursday as the country’s Senate advanced the vote on a bill that would raise the federal debt ceiling. The House of Representatives earlier passed a procedural bill that will allow the Senate to raise the federal debt ceiling with just 51 votes, before December 15.
The Dow Jones ended Thursday unchanged as the Nasdaq 100 fell 1.49% at market close with Peloton falling 11.35%. The S&P 500 closed 0.72% lower as Tesla fell 6.10%.
On Wednesday, the country’s Bureau of Labor Statistics released a report that showed a rise in job openings to 11 million in October, up 431,000 from the September figures. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden said that Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE’s study of their vaccine’s response to the Omicron variant of COVID-19 demonstrated encouraging results.
Elon Musk Sells $12 billion worth of Tesla Stock
The CEO of Tesla Inc. Elon Musk has now sold about $12 billion worth of the company’s stock, according to the latest filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.
In the most recent transaction, Elon sold 934,091 shares worth $963.2 million while buying 2.17 million shares at $6.24 per share. Last week, he sold another $1.01 billion worth of stock as part of a plan to sell 10% of his stake following a Twitter poll he conducted a few weeks earlier.
US Markets Earnings Report
Broadcom’s Q4 – $AVGO
Broadcom Inc, which designs, develops and supplies a broad range of semiconductor and infrastructure software solutions said on Thursday that its diluted earnings per share rose to $4.45 in Q4 2021, a 52% surge from the same period in 2020.
During the period under review, net revenue and net income rose 15% and 50% respectively, to hit $7.41 billion and $1.99 billion, respectively.
For the full 2021, net revenue was up 15% to hit $27.45 billion as net income skyrocketed 128% to $6.7 billion. The company also announced a $10 billion share buyback with its stock jumping 5.58% in after-hours trading.
Costco Wholesale Corporation – $COST
Costco Wholesale Corporation, an American multinational corporation which operates a chain of membership-only big-box retail stores and considered the fifth largest retailer in the world, said on Thursday that its total revenue in the first fiscal quarter of 2022 grew 17% year on year to $50.36 billion.
Net income rose 14% to $1.32 billion while net sales jumped 17% year on year to $49.42 billion.
Oracle’s Q2 – $ORCL
Oracle Corporation, an American multinational computer technology company on Thursday reported that its total revenue for the second quarter of 2022 increased 6% to $10.4 billion.
The company’s cloud services and license support revenues were up 6% year-on-year to $7.6 billion. However, it posted operating and net losses of $824 million and $1.5 billion respectively.
Oracle’s shares were up 6.32% in after-hours trading following the release of earnings.
US users to transfer crypto via WhatsApp
On Thursday, Meta, formerly Facebook, announced that WhatsApp has introduced a new feature in the United States that allows a “limited number” of users to transfer money through a chat using cryptocurrencies.
While the option itself has been made possible using Meta’s recently launched digital wallet Novi, users can send and receive money in Pax Dollars (USDP) stablecoins instantly and without fees like any other attachments.
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